Problems with Z-depth render elements

[SonyBoy]

We have recently started wanting to output two depth passes for each shot. The comp lead requested one pass with antialiasing (filtering) turned on, and one with it turned off. I've run into some strange problems. Both channels are successfully rendered, however when they are brought into a comp program their names are prefixed with "other". In Hiero, the passes can be viewed. In Nuke, they don't appear at all. There is nothing unusual about the way these passes are set up.

I have also noticed that for some reason the "Filtering" checkbox is also now sometimes grayed out and unavailable when creating a Z-Pass, even on a brand new render element that has had no overrides set on it. Can anyone explain any of this? Thanks.

[SonyBoy]

Can anyone at Chaos answer this for me?

I think at least there is a bug on the UI for the depth element -- we've discovered that the filter checkbox is very unpredictable. Seems to pop in and out of being unavailable in the AE, seemingly based on selecting other render elements then going back to the depth element. I'm guessing this is unrelated to the problem I outlined with two Z-depth passes.

[yolov]

Hi,

I assume this is with a multichannel exr file, since Nuke has a mind of its own when it comes to zDepth information. For some reason Nuke insists on automatically putting the zDepth into the "depth" layer and gets a bit confused when there's more than one zDepths. There's two ways to go around this, depending on whether everything is already rendered out or you can/want to ren-render.

1. In case you can still re-render, you'll simply need to put a dot in the explicit name of each zDepth channel (that's the "Filename suffix" field). It doesn't matter what the name is, as long as there's a dot there (e.g. myDepth.filtered and myDepth.unfiltered). This way Nuke will recognize them as separate channels that don't belong to the native "depth" where it insists on stuffing the zDepth.

2. In case it's too late to re-render, both of your zDepths will be "combined" into the "other" channel in Nuke (technically it's a layer, not a channel). In this case, you can still shuffle them out. If you try to shuffle the "other" layer, you should be able to see two separate "z" channels with all of their components.

Basically you will have to turn this:




into this:




I hope that this helps. Let me know if there's still issues.

[yolov]

Can anyone at Chaos answer this for me?

I think at least there is a bug on the UI for the depth element -- we've discovered that the filter checkbox is very unpredictable. Seems to pop in and out of being unavailable in the AE, seemingly based on selecting other render elements then going back to the depth element. I'm guessing this is unrelated to the problem I outlined with two Z-depth passes.

Thanks for the report.
I think I found a problem there, the "Filtering" option goes a bit crazy when it's been locked, I can't seem to be able to unlock it at all. If that's what you're experiencing, it's hopefully an easy fix. But just to be sure - if it's something else, please do let me know and if possible outline the steps to reproduce it.

[SonyBoy]

Alex, fantastic! Yes, that clears up the problem for us (unfortunately means we can't use the new Get Name From Node feature any more which I was quite excited about). So far as the filtering checkbox, yes I think this is related to locking the box. I'll avoid that in the future. One small gripe about that particular UI -- could you make it possible to drag out the render elements list window so that you can see all of your passes? We use a lot of these and several render layers. If the list is longer than the window it's necessary to scroll up and down, and it also pops to the top of the list every time you switch render layers. Thanks again for the help -- really appreciated.

[yolov]

we can't use the new Get Name From Node feature

Not in front of Maya right now, but as long as Maya allows dots in node names, it should work... I think. Haven't tested it, though.

I'll avoid that in the future.

Only avoid it until we fix it. It's better to fix it than users having to avoid it This one, however, might be a bit tricky to fix, but certainly not impossible.

could you make it possible to drag out the render elements list window so that you can see all of your passes?

This one in particular we've been thinking of fixing (yes, we know about it and bugs even ourselves ). And it is, in fact, a pretty easy fix. I'll make a note to look into it for the next major version.

And sorry to get back to you so late, hope it was still in time (-ish).